Global Network Initiative

18 results arranged by date

Today, the Global Network Initiative launched a campaign to raise awareness on India's Internet laws. The GNI, of which CPJ is a founding member, is a coalition of technology companies--including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo--and human rights groups and Internet freedom advocates. The coalition, in collaboration with the Internet and Mobile Association of India, has created an interactive slideshow that explains the impact of current laws and regulations on the country’s Internet users.

When President Obama takes
the lectern to discuss U.S. surveillance policy, as he is expected
to do Friday, those hoping for sweeping reform are likely to be disappointed. As
reported
in The New York Times, the president
appears poised to reject many of the recommendations of his Review Group on Intelligence
and Communications Technologies, a brain trust of five
experts he handpicked to study U.S. intelligence practices in the wake of
disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

On Monday, eight
of the world's leading technology companies set aside their rivalries to issue
a direct challenge to U.S. lawmakers: lead the world by example and fix
America's broken surveillance state. Although the tech companies' statement
sends a powerful message, notably absent from the letter's signatories is the
appearance of a single telecommunications company, or telco.

Some of the Internet companies at the heart of the outcry over U.S.
government surveillance today joined with human rights and press freedom
groups, including CPJ, in calling for greater government disclosure of electronic
communications monitoring.

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With more than a billion users, Facebook is not only
the biggest global social network but also an increasingly important forum for
journalists. In some repressive countries it has even served as a publishing
platform for journalists whose newspapers or news websites have been closed
down. That is why journalists and bloggers should note
today's news that after a year of standing on the threshold, Facebook has
decided to step inside the Global
Network Initiative tent.

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For more than six years the Committee to Protect Journalists
has been working with freedom of expression advocates, investors, and giant
Internet companies to promote online freedoms. Absent from the discussions
under the umbrella of the Global
Network Initiative have been the telecommunications companies--vital
gateways to the Internet for journalists and bloggers, particularly in much of
the global South. Today things have changed.

"The rules of the game have changed," then-Prime Minister Tony Blair said after the July 7, 2005, terrorist attacks in London as he announced that the U.K. government would clamp down on terrorists "whatever it takes." Now, the limits of such bold but vague intentions are on show as the draft Communications Data Bill undergoes pre-legislative scrutiny in a joint committee of British Members of Parliament and Peers. Is gathering digital data from the general population a necessary upgrade of law enforcement capabilities, as the British Government argues, or does it dilute the liberal tenets of British democracy for the sake of security?

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Chinese
dissident Wang Xiaoning was released today after serving a 10-year prison term
on charges of "incitement to subvert state power," a case built in good part on
client information supplied by Yahoo. Wang had used his Yahoo email account and
the discussion forum Yahoo Groups to spread ideas the government deemed
dangerous. His case closely parallels that of journalist Shi Tao, another Yahoo
user who fell afoul of the Chinese government. In 2005, Shi was convicted of "illegally
leaking state secrets abroad" and given a 10-year sentence. Yahoo had helped
authorities identify Shi through his account information.

Journalists and bloggers in authoritarian countries have
their work cut out thwarting governments that try to restrict their writing and
reporting. The last thing they need to worry about is the provider of their
publication platform helping authorities with censorship or surveillance. Cue
the Global Network Initiative
(GNI), a voluntary grouping of Internet companies, freedom of expression
groups, progressive investors, and academics.

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When they're creating new features, software designers talk
in terms of "use cases." A use
case describes steps that future customers might perform with a
website. "Starting a group with friends," would be a use case for
Facebook. "Buying a book" would be case for Amazon's designers.